Kinder Morgan Energy Partners L.P. announced that its 50-50 joint venture with Imperial Oil Limited has entered into additional firm take or pay agreements with strong, credit-worthy oil company majors sufficient to allow a planned expansion project to move forward by adding incremental capacity of 110,000 barrels per day (bpd) at the Edmonton Rail Terminal, Strathcona County, Alberta, Canada. (Earlier post.) The terminal is now almost a year into construction.

The Edmonton Rail Terminal will increase its capacity at startup in the first quarter of 2015 to more than 210,000 bpd and potentially up to 250,000 bpd. The terminal will be connected via pipeline to Kinder Morgan’s adjacent Edmonton storage terminal and will be capable of sourcing all crude streams handled by Kinder Morgan for delivery by rail to North American markets and refineries.

The rail terminal is being constructed and will be operated by Kinder Morgan, and will connect to both Canadian National and Canadian Pacific mainlines.

Including the addition of the expanded capacity, KMP’s investment in the project now totals approximately $232 million.

The continued interest in this facility, and additional volume being contracted for with this announcement, further demonstrates how important it is for our customers to secure crude oil take away capacity using a variety of transportation options, including both pipeline and railway capacity to ensure crude oil reaches market.